


Swing

by afteriwake



Series: A Thousand Suns [16]
Category: Bleach
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-16
Updated: 2012-10-16
Packaged: 2017-11-16 10:48:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/538631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was time for him to choose a side.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Swing

**Author's Note:**

> Set during the same afternoon of “The Spaces In Between.”

“Have you decided the side you want to take?”

He had been sitting in the ring of stones where he went to be alone, looking up at the fake sky in the training room. “What do you mean by sides?” he asked.

“We are going against the Arrancar, the substitute shinigami who stole Captain Hitsugaya’s life,” Nelliel said, stepping in. He turned to look at her, and noted she was once again in her outfit she had worn as an Espada. In the whole time since he had been around her, he hadn’t seen her in it. It probably wasn’t the original outfit. That Ishida brat kept sewing her a bunch of stuff, and he’d probably sewed her uniform. “I would like to know whether you are with us or against us.”

“I’m not with them, if that’s what you mean,” he said with a shrug.

Her eyes widened. “But you are not with us.” He stood up and moved over to her. Ever since that day in the circle of stones where he’d had his hand wrapped around her throat and she showed no sign of fear he had to, very grudgingly, give her some respect. Her, though, not everyone else. He had still played his games with Arisawa until that lost its fun, and then he was left with nothing but Nelliel’s company and his thoughts, and he hadn’t exactly enjoyed the latter. He looked at her, saying nothing, and then she nodded slowly. “All right.”

“That’s all I get?” he asked, looking intently at her. “You’re not even going to convince me to try and help out? Put my skills to good use? Join the good guys’ side and kick Arrancar ass?”

“What would be the point? You are stubborn, Grimmjow, and I cannot hope to change your mind,” she said with a slight shrug. “It would be pointless to try.”

He looked at her, and then used sonido to get to her, covering the distance in an instant. She stood her ground, even though they were mere inches apart. “Try anyway,” he said quietly.

“What game are you playing now?” she asked, her voice sounding just slightly confused.

“I’m not playing a game,” he said. “I just want to know if you can convince me.”

“Then that is a game, and I do not have time for games,” she said, taking a step back. He reached out and grabbed her arm, and she looked down at his hand, then back at his face. “Let go.”

“Try to convince me first,” he said, not tightening his grip but not loosening it, either.

She waited a moment. “They will never take you back. The Arrancar. Without your Ressureccion you are nothing to them, lower than the lowest Hollow. You could never hope to be the Sexta Espada again.”

“That only tells me why I shouldn’t join them. Tell me why I should help _you,_ ” he said, taking a step towards her.

“Why do you need convincing?” she asked quietly.

“Because I think I’m about to make a stupid decision and I want to know if it’s the right one.”

“To join us is not a stupid decision,” she said.

“That’s not the decision I was talking about,” he replied. He tightened his grip on her wrist, then quickly used her other arm to pull her close and kissed her. It was not a gentle kiss, and he expected her to be surprised, or at least to fight back. But she wrenched her arm free from his grasp, moved it to the back of his head and moved him closer, deepening the kiss. They didn’t need to breathe, not really, and it was only when it appeared as though more than just kissing was about to happen that they stopped. He looked at her, and saw something in her eyes he hadn’t seen before, a look of unmitigated lust. “I thought you hated me,” he said with a slightly cocky grin.

“I have never hated you, not even when we were both Espada,” she said. “If I had truly hated you, I would have killed you when you tried to strangle me all those weeks ago.”

He licked his lips, moving the hand on her waist to keep her close. “I’m an asshole. I’ll probably try and wreck anything that might happen between us. I’ll probably make your life miserable and make you regret ever saving my life.”

“Yes, perhaps you will. But you might not, either,” she said, putting a hand on his chest. “First, though, I need to get through tonight.”

“I’ll have your back. But just yours. I’m not helping any of those shinigami punks or Kurosaki’s playmates. I don’t care what happens to them.”

“I would not have expected any less from you.” The look in her eyes changed. Before, he had seen passion and lust. Now he saw a different type of lust: bloodlust. She wanted carnage tonight, and seeing as his aspect of death had been destruction, he would be more than happy to oblige. “Come. It is time to meet the others.”

They broke apart and moved out of their section of the training grounds. This time he knew he was her equal in more ways than he had been before. And if he needed to be a good guy to fight by her side, then the other side had better be ready to get their asses kicked, because all those thoughts of his he’d been left with in the last few weeks had told him that no matter what, Nelliel was the one who would get him through, and he was going to need to stand by her side regardless of who else stood by her. It wasn’t a matter of owing her anymore; it was a matter of taking this new beginning she’d helped give him and actually doing something with it. And if that meant fighting on Kurosaki’s side against those he would have once called allies and comrades, then that was what it meant.


End file.
